Basic Therapeutic Practice

Basic Therapeutic Practice Despite the many alternate forms of incorporating mindfulness into therapeutic techniques, all mindfulness-based practices involve a basic instruction in mindfulness meditation. Different techniques will emphasize varying aspects of mindfulness according to the symptoms or disorders being treated, yet they all follow a similar general format, starting “with psychoeducation, in which clients learn about the foundational elements of mindfulness, including the tendencies of the human mind to become preoccupied with thinking about the past, planning for the future, and labeling and making judgments about everyday experiences” (Brown et al., 2013). It is possible that the enlightenment effect could play a role in mindfulness
(2016) explain that mindfulness can be broadly classified into two modes of delivery, Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) and Mindfulness Meditation, each reflecting its cultivation in the context of either western or eastern cultures, respectively. While mindfulness development is the primary goal of both modalities, there are nuanced variations between the two “including differences in the respective techniques’ general understanding of mindfulness (e.g., MBI: cognitive and affective; MM: attentional) and the ultimate purposes of mindfulness practices (e.g., MBI: symptom reduction; MM: alleviating the suffering of all things)” (Hanley et al., 2016). Much in the vein of Albert Ellis’ philosophy concerning mental distress, the western application of mindfulness centers around the idea that people disturb themselves by the ways in which they think about and respond to events in their
(2015) conducted a randomized clinical trial of 116 veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over the course of almost two years to compare the efficacy of MBSR treatment with that of present-centered group therapy. The results of this study showed that though this treatment is indeed effective, it is not to be mistaken as a miracle cure for PTSD. “Among veterans with PTSD, mindfulness-based stress reduction therapy, compared with present-centered group therapy, resulted in a greater decrease in PTSD symptom severity. However, the magnitude of the average improvement suggests a modest effect” (Polusny et al., 2015). One of the hallmarks of PTSD are recurrent and often intense flashback episodes brought on by both relevant and irrelevant stimuli in the present. MBSR teaches clients to remain grounded in the present, yet to also accept their symptoms in a nonjudgmental way in order to avoid exacerbating symptom intensity through rumination and secondary elaboration. In other words, veterans with PTSD (especially men) are taught that having the disorder is not synonymous with weakness. By accepting their condition, clients are better able to work through their issues. Though the effect may only be moderate, results concerning PTSD treatment with MBSR indicate that it is certainly a viable and more effective option than current treatments for the